An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alicia Pintwala.

Starting a business together was always a bit of a pipe dream for Alicia and her husband, Justin. But throughout the pandemic, when they found themselves at home with three little kids, they started building certain habits into their daily wellness routines to help them cope with ongoing stressors. They soon realized that what they really wanted didn’t exist. So they created it themselves.

Together they founded Slowlii — a wellness company helping busy people press pause. Slowlii’s first product, Restore, is a minty ashwagandha tablet that melts in your mouth in ~ 3 minutes. It’s the first supplement to incorporate a mindfulness aspect to it. While it’s formulated with clinically proven ingredients to reduce stress and anxiety, the melt-away feature prompts you to pause (put those phones down), check-in with yourself and find calm and clarity in the moment.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I am the youngest of four, growing up in Toronto, Canada. My siblings are quite a bit older than me so, at times, it felt like I was an only child — lots of people looked out for me. I had a fairly traditional upbringing and was very lucky to be raised by hard working parents who were always present. As a kid I was always very social and I’d say from day one, one of my biggest personality traits has been wanting to make sure everyone around me is happy — which I’ve learnt as an adult, can be a flaw as much as it is strength. I went to Queen’s University, studying Psychology + Health Studies. I sort of fell into the non-for-profit space after school and ended up working in fundraising for 12 years. It was a great “feel good” space to be in but I yearned for more creativity and autonomy. I really wanted to create something myself and give it my all.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success” I wouldn’t say I grew up with a ton of confidence in my abilities and as a result, putting myself out there, with the risk that I may fail, it’s always scared the heck out of me. But you’ve gotta do it, take the risks where you can, try new things, talk to different people, do stuff outside of your comfort zone.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Before we even came up with our own business idea, How I Built This, Guy Raz, was a huge inspiration for me. I love hearing about successful entrepreneurs who came up with an idea and followed through on it, how they failed and got back up again. I think it helped to give me the confidence that I could do that too — I just needed the right idea.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I’ve wanted to start my own business for years and have tried a few things — I thought I would start a jewelry brand for a while. I launched a Moroccan carpet business which was a lot of fun — but I did it blindly and with only one foot in the door which didn’t make it very successful. Justin has owned his own business for years and is probably the one that inspired me to become more entrepreneurial over the years. I used to brainstorm the “million dollar idea” and he would always say, “don’t force the idea generation, it will come to you — it’ll be something you personally need that doesn’t exist and that’s when you run with it”. Then kids happened, 3 of them back-to-back, and I felt like my head was spinning. I was looking for ways to pause in my day. And that was it. The idea came to me, to us, because we needed it, just like he said it would.

Don’t just start something to start something — do it because you’re passionate about it, because you’re willing to sacrifice things in order to see this one thing be successful and because you want to add value to your community and the world.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

We relied heavily on google and social media and crossed our fingers (and toes) that nobody would come out with something similar before we launched. Obviously there are a lot of supplements-based products out there and wellness is a saturated market to be in right now. We knew our product had to be different — especially bootstrapping it like we’ve done, we just didn’t have the funds to compete with the big dogs. Our brand and product had to be able to differentiate itself.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

1. Research the space/industry as best you can — use every disposal at your fingertips for this. Talk to lots of people in the industry.
2. We created a formula that we loved based on our mission of helping people slow down. The supplement also had to literally help people pause, through a melt away tablet which was unique in the market.
3. The hero ingredient we used (ksm-66 ashwagandha) had never been used in a melt and we were actually told it wouldn’t work because the taste was too hard to mask. Even the manufacturer couldn’t do it with their in-house R&D team. So we used a flavor house that were pros and they suggested a flavor (peppermint) that they believed would help mask the earthy taste of ashwagandha (given it is a root found in India).
4. Finding the right co-manufacturer was a long process. We found one we really liked and actually put down a deposit with them to help us formulate a product but they ended up being way too expensive to make the economics work. Luckily they fully refunded our money!
5. Once you partner with a co-manufacturer to develop the product, the time it takes to receive a sample can be months, and then you need to iterate it many times to get it as near perfect as possible. And once you finish, it’s another few months to fulfill an order. So buckle in for the long haul and ideally keep your day job if you can so you aren’t too stressed.
6. We decided to start selling DTC through our website using a shopify site. It’s so great how many tools there are when setting up an e-commerce site. It is easy, but we did spend a lot of time getting our design right. We wanted everything on the site to feel like your mind slowed down. We know social media does the opposite (speeds your mind up) so our intention is to be a tiny little moment in your day to help you slow down and enjoy the moment.
7. Don’t be fooled, we still feel like we are not “successful” yet. We have a long way to go to build the product within retail stores and continually build the brand. It is not easy, but we do our best to stay focused on the day, and not get too scared about what the future holds. Our own product helps us with this which is nice! If we can help you make a plan to build out a product you have in mind, feel free to email or DM us over social.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

1. It’s not worth it if you’re not having fun with it. It’s kind of ironic to start a business dedicated to slowing down and de-stressing when there is nothing more stressful than starting a business. It’s easy to get caught up on it and forget why you’re doing it in the first place. At the end of the day everything we’re doing is to better ourselves and our family and if that’s being jeopardized, we need to ask ourselves if it’s worth it. We’ve had to pause and remind ourselves of this a handful of times over this past first year.
2. Make boundaries and commit to them. Working for yourself is no 9 to 5. Especially when it’s fun and you’re passionate about it, it’s easy to work every waking hour and log-in in the evenings or on weekends. But when you own your business with a small team of 3, you also can’t afford to reach that level of burn-out. It’s important to set boundaries for yourself. In my opinion, it’s not impressive to kill yourself over a job so don’t fall for burning the candle at both ends.
3. You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.
4. Good things take time. When we did our soft-launch, we were sure we would see organic traffic to the site. Then when we started paid ads on social, we were certain that would do the trick and drive sales overnight. We were naive. Neither was the case, which was a hard blow to our egos. But our expectations were too high. We were excited about the business, the brand and we thought everyone else would be too. Building a business, a following, a customer base, building that social proof — rarely does it happen immediately. Make sure your goals and expectations are achievable so that you can celebrate the successes, even if they are small.
5. Your business is not a reflection of you. When you build a business from the ground-up, it’s hard for it to not become personal. We must remember that at the end of the day, it is a business and one of your goals is to generate revenue. Try not to get stuck on what you want and ensure you are making decisions that align with the mission and values of your business. For example, when we started Slowlii, I had a very specific consumer in mind, certain people in my life as well as influencers, that I was certain would fall in love with our product and speak to it. That wasn’t always the case and it’s taken a lot for me to become less narrow-minded and think about the brand more holistically rather than a reflection of me.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Ask yourself how this product differentiates itself from what is already out there. And then determine its value-add — why do people need it and how is it going to help them?

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

We can’t do everything well. I don’t think there is any shame in hiring a consultant to help you develop the product and, if anything, it may move things along for you faster than not. Coming up with the idea is half the battle. There are experts in every field and not taking advantage of that would be a disservice to yourself.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

We are currently self-funded but I don’t believe there is a best way per-se. There are a lot of factors that go into whether or not external funding is the right option. For us right now, we want the autonomy to make our own decisions and take the company in our own direction but that’s not to say that things may change in a year or in three. If we needed a venture capitalist in order to see real growth and take Slowlii to the next level, we wouldn’t be opposed to that. But it would be important that they are 100% behind the mission of the company and our values — they need to be aligned with us in every aspect.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I’d like to think in a few ways. For one, we are relatable. Just like everyone else, we’re trying to manage it all, work, home, kids, relationships etc. and we are pretty outspoken about how hard it is. Days can be trying. I think there are a lot of people today that feel the same way. Sometimes it’s just reassuring knowing there are people out there getting met with the same challenges as you. We want to add value to the world by helping them — and ourselves — find ways to overcome daily stressors. To show up better every day.

Creating a giveback strategy was of the utmost importance from day one. We are committed to supporting organizations that work with families who don’t have the luxury of time on their side — primarily single parent and/or low-income households. Moments are fleeting and we want to help families make the most of them.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

We truly believe in slowing down to live more. Much of what we encounter on a daily basis is designed to speed us up. It becomes easy to let the small things, the fleeting moments, the laugh of a loved one, the smell of a home-cooked meal, the blue of a summer sky, pass us by without a thought.

We want people to slow it down, to find that pause button throughout their busy day. In doing so, we can find calm and clarity in the moment, show up with intention and perform better — whether that be a better business owner, better friend, better parent. Most importantly though, better and kinder to ourselves.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

We are big fans of Dr. Andrew Huberman — he is a force. Seeing someone with the scientific background that he has, be able to to communicate his knowledge in such an easy to understand manner. That’s a skill and I think many of us are better off thanks to the advice he regularly shares.

I also can’t pass up the opportunity to say Gwyneth Paltrow. I’m so inspired by what she’s built with GOOP and well, if we had the opportunity to have Slowlii sold there, it would be a dream come true to say the least.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Making Something From Nothing: Alicia Pintwala Of Slowlii On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.